Strategy: Yelp vs. OpenTable
By Jesse Heeley with editing by Bristol James
Lets face it, long gone are the days when people’s first choice is to call a restaurant, hotel, airline, or really any business to make a reservation. Aside from a trusted recommendation from a friend, when it comes to choosing an activity or dining option people are most often turning to the internet for help. You can do it all online, from finding options in the area, to reading reviews and recommendations from previous visitors, to actually making a decision and booking a reservation.
Businesses in the hospitality industry are turning to two main partners to amplify their online presence and booking experience for customers: Yelp and OpenTable. It’s likely by now you’ve used both of these platforms at some point to make a booking of your own. What’s the real difference? Well, we’re here to break it down for you.
Yelp is a social-networking platform that enables users to express their opinions online and connects them with credible local businesses, while also giving users the option to follow other users, bloggers and journalists to see where they are visiting.
Users have the ability to write reviews and leave feedback in regard to their experiences at restaurants, retail stores, car dealerships, and much more. Yelp currently has communities popping up in the majority of North American Cities, as well as other major markets around the globe, making it increasingly easier to find the best spots to visit.
What About Paid Opportunities?
Having a Yelp for Business page is a crucial part of advertising on their platform as it helps you establish a reputation and build a solid base of reviews. Once your page has successfully been set up, you’ll be able to start connecting with your customers. You can join the conversation and respond to them via direct message, or public comment for all future prospects to see.
Yelp has stated that business owners that advertise on their platform see an average of $23,000 in annual revenue, which is $15,000 more than that of users who only claimed their free page.
Advertising on Yelp
Targeted Local Advertising
Yelp ads puts your business in front of consumers nearby who are looking to make a purchase.
Presence on Mobile & Desktop Devices
Over half of Yelp’s searches come from users on mobile devices. Yelp allows you to advertise on desktop, mobile web, and mobile app.
Business Page Upgrades
Allows clients to upgrade to premium features including competitive ad removal, photo slideshows, and call to action buttons.
Yelp CPC & Auto-Bidding Program
If the advertiser opts in for auto-bidding, Yelp will deliver a variable and unguaranteed number of ad impressions to the site to promote client’s business, based on available site inventory.
YELP Targeting Opportunities
Unlike search engines like Bing and Google, Yelp does not target on a keyword basis. Yelp operates on a location/category basis and will feature your ad based on its ad score. The ad score consists of your Max CPC multiplied by the percentage your ad has of being clicked. If a user is looking up types of restaurants in your area, and that matches your business you’ll be considered for that impression, but if there are competitors with a stronger Yelp presence and a higher CPC, you have the chance of losing that bid. Yelp will also adjust your CPC to lower it if you don’t need to spend the total cost to win that impression.
YELP Measurement Capabilities
Yelp for Business
On your Yelp Business Page, you can see the user views and customer leads tabs, and an increase in these usually indicates increased exposure to Yelp users.
Link Tracking
Link tracking is a feature available to advertisers with ten or more locations, and by adding this feature you can gain insight to which website link and call-to-action clicks bring traffic to your website.
Mobile App for Business Owners
Yelp offers a business owners app for iOS & Android that enables you to track visitor engagement and customer leads, and also respond to reviews and messages, with real time mobile notifications.
Other Recommended Metrics to Track on Yelp:
· Mobile Check-Ins
· Mobile Calls
· User Uploaded Photos
· Call to Action Clicks
· Directions & Map Views
· Clicks to Your Website
· Yelp Bookmarks
· Yelp Deals Sold
· Reservation Made on Yelp
OpenTable is an online restaurant-reservation service company prided on convenience, that is considered to be a leading provider of real-time online reservations for diners and guest management solutions for restaurants. With just a few clicks you can secure a table at one of 26,000 participating restaurants around the world in prime time. Booking a reservation is free for customers, but on the other side, restaurants pay a fee when a user books a reservation at their location.
Like Yelp, OpenTable enables users to write reviews and leave feedback based on their dining experiences. It has not been as established as Yelp, but they do differentiate their brand through the use of their reservation system.
What About Paid Opportunities?
In 2018, 620 million diners made searches on OpenTable to discover new restaurant options, and their audience is still growing. Like Yelp, you’d need to establish a Business Page on OpenTable’s platform that would serve as a face for your brand on their website. Once you’ve successfully set everything up, OpenTable offers a number of different advertising packages that you can utilize to promote your brand through their network.
Advertising on OpenTable
Bonus Points
With bonus points, advertisers can incentivize diners without discounting. Make your restaurant more appealing to diners during the days and times you are most concerned about filling.
Promoted Results
With promoted results, you can have your brand featured in search results to increase your exposure to undecided diners.
Automatic Table Status Through POS
OpenTable’s free to use tool, GuestCentre, allows brands to implement a POS integration to automate appetizer, entrée, and dessert statuses from your point of sale system. This function is currently live with automated paid status updates and other features of power hospitality and insights.
Premium Access
If your brand is luxury and you are 100% going to sell out, the Premium Access function gives you the ability to make tables available to only OpenTable’s “Elite Diners”.
Mobile Payments
OpenTable has integrated mobile payments into their system, giving your guests the opportunity to pay prior to their meal — no more waiting for the check, and you’ll be able to turn tables faster.
Additionally, OpenTable offers:
- 24/7 US-based Technical Support
- Powerful Marketing Engine
- Guest Management Tools
- Free Online Training of Their Platforms
- Free GuestCentre Certification for your Staff
- Local Restaurant Relationship Managers Who Understand your Needs
Targeting Opportunities
Unlike other search engines, OpenTable does not charge on a click or impression basis, but only if you seat a guest. They receive a fee for the reservation being made on their platform. Another great tool that OpenTable offers is the Guest Profiles function that enables brands to provide highly specialized experience to their guests:
- Guest Information & Preferences
- Guest Visit History
- Guest & Visit Notes
- Guest Tags
- Keep track of VIPS and special guest relationships
Measurement Capabilities
OpenTable’s Business Intelligence Suite, GuestCentre, assists advertisers’ reporting initiatives and helps you to better understand your business and improve performance. The Current GuestCenter reporting suite includes the following reports and analyze:
1. Shift Occupancy
2. Cover Trends
3. First Time Visits
4. Guest Frequency
5. Reservations
6. Turn Times
7. Referral Tracking
8. Email Reports
9. Guest Export
10. Owner App
FINAL SHOWDOWN
Why consider OpenTable?
Since 1998, OpenTable has dominated the virtual reservation landscape. Their platform manages 124 million diners on average each month, with 27 million direct online reservations, at more than 48,000 restaurants globally. Over the years OpenTable has tested and rolled out a number of different tactics to retain and build their audience, but at the end of the day pricing continues to be the main decider.
OpenTable is the most expensive option for restaurants that take reservations, with $249 monthly fees + a seated cover charge of 25 ¢ to $1 depending on how the table is booked. One of OpenTable’s benefits, is that they do not charge on a CPC or impression basis, but instead will only charge a fee if someone books a reservation through their platform. One benefit to advertising on OpenTable, is that they do not charge on a CPC or impression basis, only if the booking is made, and that person is physically seated in your restaurant.
Why Consider Yelp?
As of December 2018, Yelp managed 22 million diners with bookings directly through their app showing a threefold increase year-over-year. To date Yelp is the most frequently used review site for finding restaurants according to Nielsen Brand Studies. Yelp has continued to evolve from a user-generated content platform, to breaking into OpenTable’s space of online reservations. Their subscription cost is $249 per month, but there are zero additional fees for hardware or setup.
That being said, Yelp does have some concerns. In the past there has been a number of issues in regard to fake reviews on their platform. It’s up to Yelp to remove these reviews, and not your business — so if you report this and Yelp declines to take this down, you have no control over the situation.
Jesse is a Paid Social and Content Coordinator and Bristol is a Social Media and Content Strategist with VERB Interactive — a leader in digital marketing, specializing in solutions for the travel and hospitality industry. Find out more at www.verbinteractive.com.
